Works with no signal
The recogniser, the recordings, the dictionary and your words all live on the device. Download once and it works on the plane, in the shop, underground.
Photograph Chinese.
Hear it in Cantonese.
Point your phone at a menu. Get Jyutping with the right tones, hear every syllable, and keep the words worth keeping. No account, no upload, no signal required.
Free to use. The camera is $9.99 AUD once — after ten free photos.
蛋撻 is pronounced daan6 taat1 and means egg tart.
Three taps, start to sound
Photograph it
A menu, a sign, a packet. Recognition runs on your phone — the picture never leaves it, and there is no account to make first.
Read it properly
Jyutping with the tone on every syllable, worked out from the whole line rather than character by character.
Hear it
Every syllable recorded, including the ones that only exist through tone change. Tap a word for the meaning, tap a syllable to hear it alone.
One character, two readings
Romanise one character at a time and 行 comes out the same in both of these words. It should not. Canto Reader reads the whole line first, then splits it into words, so the reading you get is the one that belongs to the word.
ngan4銀hong4行
bank
haang4行gaai1街
to go out, stroll the shops
Built for the moment you actually need it
A game that drills tones
Tone Staff calls a tone; you cut the words that carry it, and hear each one as you do. Built from the words you actually looked up.
Remembers for you
Words you tap come back when you are about to forget them, scheduled with FSRS — the algorithm Anki uses. Both directions: read it, and recognise it by ear.
One price, once
Not a subscription. The app runs on your phone, so there is nothing to rent.
Free
$0 forever
- Type or paste Chinese, or type Jyutping and find the characters
- Jyutping with tones, worked out in context
- Every syllable spoken, from a recorded bank
- Tap any word for its meaning
- Your word bank, and reviews that schedule themselves
- The tone game, and the world ranking
- Full offline use, on every one of the above
No account needed.
Full
$9.99 once, AUD
- Everything in Free
- Unlimited photo reading
- Ten free photos before you decide
- Yours on every device you sign into
Refundable for 30 days — see refunds.
Before you ask
What is Jyutping?
Jyutping is the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong’s romanisation for Cantonese. Each syllable is spelled in Latin letters and ends in a number from 1 to 6 for its tone, so 多謝 (thank you) is do1 ze6. Canto Reader shows it on every character, with each tone number in its own colour.
How is this different from pasting text into a romaniser?
Most tools convert one character at a time, which is wrong often enough to teach mistakes: 行 is hong4 in 銀行 (bank) but haang4 in 行街 (to go out). Canto Reader works out readings from the whole line before splitting it into words, and you can correct any reading for the word it belongs to.
Will it ever play Mandarin, or guess a tone?
No. There is no Mandarin voice anywhere in it. Syllables play from a bank of recorded Cantonese, and a syllable that cannot be voiced correctly stays silent rather than being said wrongly.
Traditional or Simplified characters?
Both. Traditional characters, as written in Hong Kong, are the primary form, because that is what people photograph. Simplified is accepted as input.
Does it work offline?
Yes, once downloaded. Text recognition, Jyutping, tones, syllable audio, your word list and your reviews all work with no connection. English definitions need a connection, except for words you have already looked up.
Are my photos uploaded?
No. Text recognition runs on your device: in the browser on the web, and on the phone in the iPhone and Android apps. The picture is never sent to us, and you do not need an account to use it.
How much does it cost?
Typed and pasted text, audio, meanings, reviews and the tone game are free. Reading photographs costs $9.99 AUD once, after ten free photos. It is not a subscription, it unlocks on every device you sign into, and it is refundable for 30 days.
Made because Cantonese learners deserve better tools
Readings come from rime-cantonese, meanings from CC-Canto and CC-CEDICT. Tones are never guessed: where a syllable cannot be voiced correctly, it stays silent rather than lying to you. Built in Australia.
Open Canto Reader